ABQ Husker

Has Nebraska really EVER made a splash hire? Devaney and Osborne weren't splash hires, but they built a "splash" program together. We need this group of coaches, starting with Riley, that can rebuild the legacy as it should be and continue it by passing the torch within the program as it was done 40 years ago. It can be done and i hope this is just the beginning.

NU's statement about all of this is pretty damning. I wonder what Tressel's thinking right now...

Why should he? Why should the AD micromanage the teams? That's what the coaches are for. I'm not saying that he should micromanage anything and agree with you in that respect. Solidarity between Eichorst and Riley is important and will do a lot to heal the locker room.

Eichorst will be a lot more visible to everyone now that Riley is here. For one, I think he was avoiding Pelini until he could fire him. Secondly, Riley will demand that Eichorst is more involved.

Julius Michalik (Cyclone Clyde), is that you? Never thought I'd see that guy's ugly mug again...

My cousin (Dan Casterline) was on that '83 team and that Orange Bowl my first memory of seeing the Huskers play. I've never even been to Nebraska, but the Huskers have been my team for the past 31 years. That first game really hurt (I was 10), but it's been a fun ride for the most part. 95% of teams in America can't hold a candle to us over that time. GBR!

Yeah. I bet Alvarez essentially gave Anderson the perpetual b*tch face Saturday night and that was that...

I'm new to the board, too, but I figured this board was like most in that most of the pessimism would come from the very vocal minority when compared to the entire Husker fan base. I grew up in Texas and started following the Huskers when I found out that my second cousin was playing in the '84 Orange Bowl. He and the rest of the team became my heroes that night (I was 10) and I've been a loyal fan for 31 years now. At that time, I didn't know anything about the reputation all of you had around the country. Having learned all of that over the years through great times and rough ones, I take great pride in being a Husker fan and in what we are all about. We love winning and doing it right...and I think that's what Eichorst had in mind when he hired Mike Riley. I'm gonna be as critical as everyone else if there's a reason to be, but I expect him to put Nebraska in its rightful place as one of the most respected programs in all of sports, both on and off the field. GBR!

Ohh yeah! Baylor is technically the Big XII champion since they own the tiebreaker by beating TCU. That's gonna end up knocking both teams out since the committee can't take TCU because they didn't win their conference. Interesting...

I know FSU has to get in because they went undefeated, but they will probably get knocked out in the semis. It'll be interesting to see what happens to TCU after what OSU did tonight. On another note, how does OSU have three QB's that are all gamebreakers when we can't get one? Riley has a lot of work to do in that regard.

It's too big of a gamble. If he loses, the players and fans will question him for 9 months, even though it's not really fair since he will have had 3 weeks to coach them. Let Barney go out with the loss, which wouldn't be a huge deal, or a bit of glory with the win. Right. Riley needs to focus on recruiting and getting his staff together as well as watching film so that he knows what he has.

No one did.

TO was on Devaney's staff. In fact, NE fans wanted him fired before he started winning. Mike Riley is a surprise pick and we have the support & facilities he needs to be successful. That's what I thought. The only one with a proven track record was Devaney and even then only one of his Wyoming teams was ranked. I'm glad that people are warming up to Riley a bit now, but in reality this hire isn't much different than any other. All of them had doubters. A home run like Tressel would have been unprecedented in NU history, so to have expected that this time was unrealistic.

I was just thinking back through history and I'm wondering if there was ever a shoo-in home run hire at NU? Did people know the day that Devaney or Osborne were hired that they would be as successful as they became? There were probably bigger names out there when those two were hired, right? Someone shed some light on that for me...

Yep. On defense, simplicity is often the best way to go. Get lots of speed and run to the ball.

I like the sound of that. There is a guy in Alabama who seems to have figured out that it not only breeds victories in college, it also attracts future recruits with visions of playing on Sunday. I lived in Seattle and followed the Washington Huskies pretty closely (but loved when the Huskers went up there a few years ago and killed them), so I saw OSU quite a bit. They were very good when his teams were healthy. There was a huge faction of the UW fan base on multiple occasions that wanted to bring Riley north when they hired the likes of Willingham and Sarkisian. I would argue that Riley is light years ahead of both of those guys and will do more with the level of talent that NU can get than Pelini or Solich ever did.

He had to be. His O-lines were decimated with injuries.

It will most likely be a pro-style balanced offense. He had a lot of success with Steven Jackson doing the smashmouth thing and I'm hoping we see the same thing with the Huskers.

Jacksonville's not gonna fire Bradley yet. I love the idea, though. He was great in Seattle and would be very successful in college should he decide to go that route. Seattle's current DC, Dan Quinn, is someone I wish NU would look at also. He left Seattle for a year or two to be the DC at Florida and went back to the Seahawks after Bradley took the Jacksonville job. He's a charismatic guy that would recruit well and his results up in Seattle speak for themselves.

Didn't think he was a good fit anyway. I hope he gets traded to the cesspool of the NFL, the Raiders.

I've been reading this board for the past few weeks since it became apparent that Bo was probably on the way out. I like David Shaw a lot just because of how Stanford plays, but I don't think he would leave the Cardinal. What about another of Harbaugh's guys from his days in Palo Alto, Colts OC Pep Hamilton? He would run a pro-style, smash mouth offense that would be really good at NU.